A Safer Community for the Children of Bee County

Through the Edward Byrne Memorial Congressionally Recommended Awards program, the Office of Justice Programs helps communities improve the capacity of local justice systems and supports training and technical assistance programs and other efforts that strategically target local needs. This program is authorized to organizations identified in the Text and Joint Explanatory Statement, Omnibus Appropriations Act, 2009.

Bee County is a small county of 32,661 with one incorporated city, Beeville, and the rest of the residents of the county live in rural communities. Bee County covers 880 miles, and is 55.4% Hispanic, 31.7% Anglo, 10.9% African American, and other ethnic groups make up the remainder. About 23% of the county lives below the poverty level and the median household income (according to the 2007 census) is $34,714. There are three state run prisons in the county and as a result a criminal element has moved into the county and has impacted the youth. The program will provide anti-crime messages, seminars and other media resources to reduce crime among youth. The goals of the project are to increase the awareness of the program in ways the public can participate in youth crime prevention and reduction and to work with the media, public, and law enforcement to reduce crime for youth. The performance measures will be the number of participants in the program; the reduction of crime committed by youth and the number of people participating in the media campaigns.
NCA/NCF